The Kentucky Commission on Human Rights along with the other
members of the Allied Organizations for Civil Rights proudly announces the
upcoming 50th Anniversary Civil Rights March on Frankfort.

The commemorative march and accompanying rally will be from 10:00
a.m. through approximately noon (Eastern Standard Time), Wednesday, March 5,
2014.Gather at the corner of 2nd
Street and Capital Avenue at 9:30 a.m. to line up in order to proceed to the
State Capitol, 700 Capitol Ave., Frankfort, Ky.

Everyone who is proud of Kentucky’s historic role in helping
to end segregation by becoming the first state south of the Mason-Dixon Line to
have a state Civil Rights Act is enthusiastically invited to participate.

The historic March 5, 1964, Civil Rights March on Frankfort included
more than 10,000 people who walked to the capitol to urge a law that would help
end segregation by making discrimination illegal in the area of public
accommodations such as stores, restaurants, theatres, and hotels. A host of
Kentucky civil rights leaders, citizens of all races, and celebrities participated.
Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Rev. Ralph David Abernathy, and baseball great
Jackie Robinson were among those who traveled to Kentucky to help lead the marchers
to the capitol and speak to the crowd from the steps. The folk group Peter,
Paul and Mary led songs about freedom. Gov. Edward (Ned) Breathitt met with Frank
Stanley Jr., owner of the Louisville Defender newspaper and a key organizer of
the event, other state civil rights leaders, and King and Robinson, to talk
about the urgent need for a state civil rights law. The march helped build
support for the U.S. Civil Rights Act of 1964 and helped result in the Kentucky
Civil Rights Act of 1966.

In order to facilitate event participation and logistics, the
Kentucky Commission on Human Rights has assisted with forming a collaborative consisting
of professional, educational, human rights and activist groups and individuals.
The Allied Organizations for Civil Rights includes partners from all over the
state. Included are the Kentucky Council
of Churches, Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, the Kentucky Conference of NAACP
Branches, the Kentucky Chapter of the National Association of Human Rights
Workers, the Kentucky Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil
Rights, the Kentucky Black Caucus of Local Elected Officials, the Fairness
Campaign, the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky, the Kentucky AFL-CIO,
the A. Phillip Randolph Institute, the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists,
local human rights commissions throughout the state, and representatives of
Kentucky’s colleges and universities.

“The Allied Organizations for Civil Rights hopes that men,
women and children from all over the state who believe in continuing the
justice movement will participate in the commemorative march and rally on March
5, 2014,” said John J. Johnson, executive director of the state human rights
commission.

“It is our desire to build upon the legacy that 10,000
Kentuckians left in 1964 with efforts that ultimately led to the end of legal
discrimination and the Kentucky Human Rights Commission being made the state authority
charged with investigating and ruling on discrimination complaints,” he said.

Johnson said the Allied Organizations for Civil Rights also hopes
to place modern-day human rights at the forefront of the commemorative event, highlighting
such issues as encouraging full voter participation and others that affect
civil rights such as working to end poverty, improve children’s health, and
restore voting rights to former felons whose prison terms have ended.

The Kentucky General Assembly will be in session in March, and the event could present
an opportunity for people to visit their state legislators and present to them
concerns of Kentuckians who care about a variety of issues, Johnson said.

“We will be encouraging schools and colleges to bring students to participate
in the event, just as they did in 1964,” Johnson said. “We hope to see busloads
of students and teachers as well as human rights, religious, disability, and other
activist and advocate groups,” he said.

To help with organization or to sign up to participate, contact Mary Ann Taylor
of the Kentucky Commission on Human Rights at 1.800.292.5566. Or email her at AOCR@ky.gov. Allied Organizations for Civil
Rights asks for as many volunteers as possible to help facilitate and to share
the plan for the upcoming 50th Anniversary Civil Rights March on
Frankfort on March 5, 2014, with others who may want to attend. To keep up with information related to the 50th
Anniversary Commemorative Civil Rights March on Frankfort, visit the blog at www.50thmarch.blogspot.com .

The Kentucky Commission on Human Rights is the state
government authority that enforces the Kentucky Civil Rights Act, and, through
its affiliation with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the
U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development, enforces federal civil rights
laws.

The Kentucky Civil Rights Act makes it illegal to
discriminate against people in the areas of employment, financial transactions,
housing and public accommodations. Discrimination is prohibited in all these
areas based on race, color, religion, national origin, gender, and disability.
In employment, discrimination is further prohibited on the basis of age
(40-years and over) and on the basis of tobacco-smoking status. In housing,
discrimination is further prohibited based on familial status, which protects
people with children in the household under the age of 18-years old, and it
protects women who are pregnant. It is also a violation of the law to retaliate
against a person who has made a discrimination complaint to the commission.

For more information, contact the commission at
1.800.292.5566. For details about civil rights and commission activities, visit
the website at www.kchr.ky.gov .

For news about civil rights and information pertaining to
protected classes, visit the Kentucky Commission on Human Rights Facebook and
Twitter sites. Link to the sites from the commission website at www.kchr.ky.gov .